


Birthday

by Zhampy



Series: Saiibo Confession [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), F/M, Fluff, Foul Language, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Robot/Human Relationships, The whole gang is here, some minor tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 09:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14422734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zhampy/pseuds/Zhampy
Summary: It's Shuichi's birthday. May he be loved and appreciated.(a birthday fic written not even close to their actual birthday)





	Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> New Saiibo series? A story of a Shuichi and Kiibo love confession in three parts. This is intended to continue on from the Saiibo Sickfic series, but can also be read as standalone. It's only loosely connected really, just in my head it's a continuation.

He didn't quite know what to expect from a party that had been organised by Kiibo, Kaede and Kaito. But Shuichi just hoped that Kaede had managed to reign in some of Kiibo's weird ideas and Kaito's over-the-top… ness, and he prayed to Atua with much gratefulness that Kokichi had not been involved at all. Maybe, if this day didn't turn out to be a complete mess, he'd finally give that blood donation to Angie…

Thankfully his birthday had fallen on a weekday this year, so any potential damage would be reduced to a minimum by way of mandatory school attendance for the whole class. Unfortunately this also meant that he had been kicked out of his own room while his friends and boyfriend organised everything afterwards.

So he found himself in what could be considered his second home; the academy library, squandered away in a quiet corner re-reading his favourite book series,  _Mysteries of Moor Manor._ A fiction series about paranormal activities surrounding a family in an old English manor written by a French author probably wasn't what most people would expect him to enjoy, but it was what it was.

Though today he couldn't give the book his full attention. His mind drifted back to an earlier conversation with his boyfriend...

_"Your birthday." The day you were born, or in Kiibo's case... "Uh, your day of creation, I suppose?"_

_"My day of creation? Do you mean the day I first became aware, or the day I received my body?"_

_"Uh, either?... are they separate days?"_

_A pause._

_"I think I would like my birthday to be the day I received my body, since I am the Ultimate Robot after all! In that case it is the 29th of October!" Kiibo raised his hands upon a realisation. "Oh! This finally explains why the Professor gets me a gift on this date every year."_

_"So you've already celebrated your birthday multiple times?"_

_"Apparently, yes!"_

_Shuichi facepalmed._

_"But only privately with the Professor! I would be very happy to share my birthday with my," and here Kiibo stuttered, "b-boyfriend! Oh, all this time I should have been giving the Professor a gift too."_

_Shuichi nodded, ready to take down a mental note. "What would you want for your birthday?"_

_Without wasting a second, Kiibo replied. "I would like some higher quality external speakers! Oh, but I doubt that would be something you could do for me, no offence intended."_

" _None taken?" He shook his head. "Anything that I_ could _do?"_

" _Hmmm, a pet bird! A cockatoo or a budgie perhaps!"_

_Shuichi sighed and slumped his shoulders. "You know we can't have pets in the dorms, Kiibo."_

" _But Kokichi has—"_

" _Nevermind Kokichi! I don't want you to get in trouble." If Kiibo got expelled Shuichi would be beyond devastated. And Kiibo really wasn't good at lying OR keeping secrets which usually involved lying._

" _O-oh, yes, you're correct. That was silly of me..." Kiibo looked down at his feet, twiddling his fingers before raising his eyes to meet Shuichi's. "What would you like for your birthday, Shuichi?"_

_A sudden boldness overcame him. He looked Kiibo squarely in the eyes. "I want you."_

_"Huh? But you already have me... I see you everyday," Kiibo paused with a slight look of confusion before he jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Almost everyday. Sorry, but personal space is also required for a healthy relationship, so I can't make it every day!"_

_He took Kiibo's hands to stop the monologue, still looking at him intently. "No, I want you at," the boldness suddenly left him, "..._ _at_ _max."_

Kiibo had been speechless and had not provided a reply, and neither of them had brought the subject up since. But now it was Shuichi's birthday and he had to confess that the thought had reoccurred to him. In fact, he'd been thinking about it all day...

"—ichi? Shuichi?"

A cool voice broke through his distracted musings. He shook his head to clear his mind and turned full attention to the person addressing him. A girl wearing the Hope's Peak uniform, long lavender hair and a serious face; it was his senior, Kyoko Kirigiri. He just about jerked to his feet and bowed, but managed to compose himself.

"I thought I might find you here when I heard you were thrown out of your room," she said with a hint of amusement.

"Ah-ah, yeah," he stuttered.

As detectives they both spent a reasonable amount of time together. However those meetings were always planned so he had time to psyche himself up and calm his nerves before spending time with someone he greatly admired and respected. When Kirigiri caught him off-guard in these sort of situations he was an uncoordinated mess. Was it a good thing or a bad thing he was apparently so predictable?

Kirigiri must have noticed his awkwardness (he wanted to slam his head on the desk) as she softened her expression somewhat.

"I have to meet with Makoto soon," oh, they were going on a date, "so I wanted to catch you before I left. This is for you, happy birthday, Shuichi."

From her shoulder bag Kirigiri retrieved an impeccably wrapped present decorated with a cute ribbon and handed it to him. He took it as if it were made of glass.

"Have a nice evening," she took her leave then, the eager hurry in her pace not quite concealed well enough for Shuichi to not notice.

When his senior had gone, he was unable to hold back the excitement and tore the wrapping away. It was a slim bar of bitter, dark chocolate with a high cocoa percentage. This couldn't have been cheap! He put the still-wrapped bar to his nose and inhaled deeply. Ahhh, perfect.

So his evening was off to a wonderful start already. Checking his watch he would give his classmates another thirty minutes to organise his not-so-secret birthday party before heading back to the dorms. If he left it too late he'd probably get thrown out of the library at closing time anyway. Sometimes he did push his luck, though not as much as that girl with pigtails did.

* * *

 

The time passed quickly when reading his book and he soon found himself in the dorms foyer outside his own room. Gently he rapped on the door.

"Guys, I'm back. Can I come in?" It felt strange knocking on his own door and asking for permission to enter.

He stood there in the massive foyer staring at his door waiting for an answer and shaking his head fondly. His classmates were neither subtle nor quiet as he could hear them shushing eachother louder and louder each time they didn't shut up after being shushed.

Eventually Kiibo answered the door. "Shuichi! Come in!" he greeted happily and Shuichi smiled and entered his own room.

Two loud bangs announced his entry as confetti was blasted directly into his face.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Everyone cheered loudly through the cloud of confetti. He realised it had been Angie and Kokichi who had popped some party poppers upon his entrance, and Kaito, Kaede, Himiko and Tenko popped more around the room gleefully (or rather; lazily in Himiko's case).

His room was moderately decorated—understandable given their time restraints—with banners and coloured paper shapes (probably sourced from the academy art supplies) that had been cut crudely into cake and other general birthday-related shapes. On top of that everything was now also covered in streamers and glitter from the party poppers just unleashed.

"Kaede said no to the disco ball," Kaito piped up first, throwing his arms out to indicate the whole room.

"I-is this okay?" Shuichi asked, despite feeling very valued he worried for the state of his room.

"It's no issue," Kirumi spoke up from the group. "We only wish for you to have a splendid birthday. Please do not worry yourself about the mess."

"O-okay," he grinned. Of course the ever-reliable Ultimate Maid would have this sort of thing under control. "Thank you everyone!"

The whole class was there. Thankfully their dorm rooms were surprisingly large so there was plenty of space for everyone—they were all smiling and greeting him, with Kaito pointing out everything that had been decorated with much enthusiasm. Kiibo smiled at him brightly since neither of them were keen on big displays of public affection.

After some idle chatter and well-wishes as he admired the room, Kaede gathered everyone's attention. "Alright, gang—"

" _Alright, gang~_ " Kokichi mimicked.

Kaede paused for a second at the interruption before continuing. "Let's get started shall we? Shuichi, you sit there," she directed the birthday boy to a spot on the floor that had been cleared of furniture. "And everyone else sit around."

She might have seemed rushed, but it was of course a school night and Kaede was both punctual, studious and their class president, so Shuichi understood her hurry.

Feeling somewhat self-conscious with all the attention, Shuichi sat himself on the floor. Everyone gathered around him in a semi-circle, some sat on the floor with him and some on his bed, all ready to hand over their gifts. He could see them each holding things that varied greatly in size and shape. Despite himself, he was excited.

"Okay!" Kaede clapped her hands happily once everyone was seated.

She waited for Kiibo to stop doing whatever it was he was doing off to the side and scoot over to his boyfriend. He took Shuichi's hand which Shuichi appreciated; it helped calm his nerves a lot. Being the centre of attention, even just among his friends, was a stressful experience.

"Are you ready?" Kaede knowingly asked.

"Um, not yet. I want to go last," Kiibo replied. He smiled apologetically to Shuichi who reassuringly tightened his grip on the robot's hand in response.

"I'll go first!" Kaito announced loudly. "You're gonna love it, it's perfect!"

Kaito carelessly leaned over Kokichi's head (who scowled) to pass the gift over. It was a small, thin box neatly wrapped with cartoonishly space-themed paper, and Shuichi tried to maintain an air of maturity as he opened the box. Inside it was a classy-looking fountain pen set.

"It's a pen?" Tsumugi asked.

Kaito instantly began explaining his gift. "It's not  _just_  a pen! It's a fountain pen that works in ZERO-G! So when I take you to space you can write Kiibo a letter from the International Space Station! Heh." He punctuated his explanation with a proud tilt of the chin.

"That's very interesting," Kiibo said as Shuichi admired the fountain pen.

"How're you gonna mail a letter from space? Idiot," Kokichi scoffed.

"Well, Shuichi would mail it once we're back on Earth again, obviously," Kaito replied as if that made sense.

"That's not interesting! He could just do that from home! The stupid pen works on Earth too, right?"

"It's not stupid! And don't call me an idiot! It'll be a letter written in space, that's awesome!"

"Ooh, ooh!" Tenko excitedly piped up. "Shuichi could write it and then blast it off into space. It would orbit Earth like a degenerate satellite, so you'd know it's always up there."

"Like looking up at stars," Gonta added.

Tsumugi sighed wistfully. "How romantic."

By the end of the conversation what had revolved around but not included him, Shuichi was blushing lightly. He handled the pen carefully and smiled at his best friend. "It's perfect, thank you, Kaito."

"Heh, no probs," Kaito gave him a thumbs-up and reseated himself back on the bed.

Kokichi scoffed again. "Wehh, you're all so boring."

"Why don't you give him your stuff then," Kaito patronisingly drawled.

With a comically impetuous manner, the Ultimate Leader handed a thin envelope over to Shuichi. If he didn't know better he'd think it was money, but though it was something the entire group knew, and something that Kokichi would not admit; Kokichi was poor.

He suspected it was one of—if not the—reasons why Kokichi bullied Kiibo so much; Kokichi was poor and Kiibo was rich. Simple jealousy. Though Kiibo wasn't personally rich, Idabashi Labs was certainly well-funded and Kiibo could get virtually anything that he requested. Meanwhile, Kokichi's parents struggled to put food on the table and were so busy at work they hardly had time to spend with their son, directly influencing the creation of Kokichi's gang and his resulting Ultimate title.

So, it wasn't money. It was…

It was a small booklet with 3x 'Buy my Silence' slips inside. Probably printed from the academy library.

He looked up. It was a touching sort of gift. Something personal, and he could tell from the forced nonchalant and snooty expression on Kokichi's face that the situation embarrassed him. He had to word his gratitude carefully or risk an outburst. Everyone in the group sat around him in the semi-circle looked like they were now sitting on eggshells.

"I foresee I'll be using these pretty quickly," he joked.

Kokichi feigned shock. "Wooooow? You're calling me a troublemaker?" he whined in his usual teasing tone, but his body mannerisms indicated that he was deeply relieved as he casually put his hands behind his head. Apparently Shuichi had successfully worded himself correctly.

The group visibly relaxed.

But there was one person who was oblivious to the tension, now eased, and it shouldn't have surprised him that Angie bounced forward with her gift next.

"Nyahaha, Shuichi! Please accept my gift next. The grace of Atua has blessed us so I have the perfect gift for you~"

She handed him a scruffily wrapped box that was small but surprisingly heavy.

"What is..." From the box he pulled out what looked to be a hand-carved sculpture of… himself? But it looked weird. It was heavily stylised and made completely from wood. His head looked… phallic.

"Fascinating..." Korekiyo observed the wooden idol with much interest, bringing his face a bit too close into Shuichi's personal bubble, especially under the current circumstances.

Shuichi couldn't take his eyes off the thing. It was like watching a car crash happen in his very own room as the group began tittering with amusement. Miu was jabbing an uncomfortable Tsumugi in the ribs with her elbow and barely held back laughter, Kaito and Maki exchanged glances, Ryoma and Kirumi sat stone-faced and Tenko looked utterly disgusted among others. He could feel his face heating up and he didn't even have the right fame of mind to hide the statue back in its box.

"Angie—what—why…?"

"The ahoge is a symbol of great fertility," Angie lectured with a perfectly happy expression despite Shuichi's growing discomfort. "I think this statue will bring you much luck."

Those without ahoges turned to look at those that did.

"D-don't look at me!" Kaede had flushed red right to her ears. She hid her face in Rantaro's chest who patted her back reassuringly, though he couldn't help the amused chuckle that escaped.

"Kyahahaha!" Miu laughed uproariously, her twin cowlicks a new source of pride. "Makes fuckin' sense the gorgeous girl genius would be a reproductive machine! My brain is made of gold and my fuckin' uterus is made of steel! I'll have ALL your babies, bitches! C'mon!"

"Miu, please..." Tsumugi pleaded for the inventor to stop.

But Miu ignored her and pointed at Gonta. "Hey, treedick! Wanna fuck? I'll be your daily babymaker!"

"H-huh? Gonta not—" Gonta looked confused and upset. It was pretty clear he didn't quite understand all of the inventor's crude lingo, but he understood enough to know this was an embarrassing situation.

"Shut up, cumslut!" Kokichi cut in to the aid of the entomologist. "Pretty sure your vag is toxic. Stick a dick in there and it'll melt off! Gross cow."

"Hieee~" Miu cowered (and shuddered), pressing her thighs together and squirming.

"Kokichi..." Kiibo reprimanded the Ultimate Leader, who grinned cheekily in return.

"Oh, and speaking of wasted potential," Kokichi began, looking to the robot. "Get a load of the size of  _this_  ahoge. If you were a girl you'd be poppin' them crotch droppings out for Shuichi."

Shuichi choked.

"It's an antenna!" Kiibo argued back, taking offence to the wrong statement. "You've stolen it enough times to know that by now."

"Oh, gross. All those times I slept with your dick under my pillow. Makes me sick..."

"W-what!? No!"

Chaos was ensuring.

"You slept with it under your pillow? That's weird, dude," Kaito remarked.

"Kiibo, maybe you should get that more securely attached," Tsumugi suggested.

"Does Rantaro's hair count as ahoges?"

"Rantaro's ahoges have girth."

"Rantaro's hair thicc."

"Hold on a second, why am I involved now!?"

"Serves you right for laughing at me," Kaede lightly shoved her boyfriend.

"Nyahaha! Such excitement!" Angie cheered.

"Nyeh, so noisy..." Himiko mumbled.

Shuichi looked around dismayed at his friends sudden rowdiness. Multiple people ganging up on Rantaro now with Kaede enjoying his torment, Kokichi and Kiibo bickering about dicks and shitty robots, Kaito and Maki reassuring a confused Gonta, Miu squirming by herself, Korekiyo taking his statue—

"KIYO, NO!" He shouted  _much_  louder than he'd intended. Everyone paused in their arguing to look at him. A heavy, awkward silence filled the room. He coughed. "Let's just… put this away for now."

He took the statue away from Korekiyo who rolled his eyes but gave it up willingly. Shuichi suspected he'd be receiving a request to study it after the party, which would  _not_  be happening. This thing was going back in the box to the deepest part of his closet.

"I'm overjoyed that you like it~" Angie smiled. "It's most effective when placed above the head of the bed."

"Thank you, Angie."

"And I can personally guarantee that with one simple blood donation to our Lord Atua it will be 50% more effective!"

Shuichi put his face in his hands.

"Ah… ha, ha, well," Kaede thankfully interrupted the scene. "Here's my gift. Happy birthday, Shuichi!"

Raising his head with relief Shuichi took the gift. It was another very thin envelope with a ribbon stuck to it and some little hand-drawn doodles of magnifying glasses and musical notes on the attached name card.

"Oh, these are—" Two tickets to the  _Arsène Lupin_  stage show! The play was touring the world and scheduled to be in Japan in a few months time. "How on earth did you afford this?"

He was so amazed with them that he showed Kiibo both tickets who he'd obviously be taking with him. Kaede blushed with the praise.

"Sometimes I do the occasional musical piece for stage shows, so I have some minor connections now," she prodded her cheeks in embarrassment. "It's not really that big of a deal."

Rantaro rolled his eyes at his girlfriend's humble attitude and petted her hair affectionately.

"It's amazing, thank you!" Kaede squeaked when Shuichi unexpectedly reached out and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around him and patted his back in a friendly manner, grinning like a fool.

Now that Kaede had calmed down the group from Angie's unintentional (?) upset, Maki took it upon herself to offer her present next. Her body language indicated that she were uncomfortable as she could only bring her eyes as high as his chin, but she handed over a lovely and large bouquet of flowers.

"I'm not the best at this, but happy birthday," she said quietly. "I don't know flower language or anything like that so if this means anything weird it's entirely unintentional."

"I know flower language!" Kokichi chirped. "She just confessed her undying love for you, Shuichi! You're old news, Kiiboy."

"A-ah?" Kiibo made a distressed whirring noise somewhere internally.

"Do you want to die?" Maki snarled. Her hair took on a life of its own, rising up in a breeze that didn't actually exist, lending her the resemblance of a cat in a foul mood.

"Ignore him, Kiibo," taking the robot's hand, Shuichi rushed to reassure his boyfriend before turning to his friend. "Sorry, Maki."

But Maki just aggressively sniffed, backing down so as not to cause a scene. She sat down with some force, obviously still boiling with anger inside and Shuichi appreciated her restraint.

"Nee-heehee—ack!" Tilting his head up, Kokichi saw Kirumi's stern face looming over him, shadowed with danger. She had grabbed the back of his shirt and lifted him to his feet.

"Kokichi, why don't you help me put these lovely flowers in a vase, hmm?" The maid had made it sound like she were giving Kokichi an option, but the deathly serious expression on her face implied otherwise.

Kokichi pouted. "Yeeees, mom." He followed the maid into the adjoined bathroom to find something to put the flowers in and water them, then poked his head out from around the doorframe. "By the way, that was a lie~"

The Ultimate Leader yelped when Kirumi snatched him away from the door and the group groaned and sighed.

"Now that the pest is gone, happy birthday," Ryoma said after a moment as he handed over yet another thin envelope gift. This one looked like it had been professionally wrapped. "It's not much but I think you'll get some use out of it."

Shuichi smiled gently at Ryoma's habitual self-deprecation and opened the envelope. Honestly, it was a feat and a half that Ryoma had even attended the party. He knew for certain that the small boy would skip plenty of his other classmates' birthdays. "Oh, yes, I will definitely get a lot of use out of this, thank you."

It was a giftcard for their local coffee shop just off campus—always popular with the Hope's Peak students. The value of the card would save him money for at least a couple of months and as students that was always greatly appreciated.

When Kirumi had returned to the bedroom with the vase of flowers and while Shuichi was distracted receiving gifts from the others, Kokichi snuck back into the small adjoined bathroom and knowingly went straight for the sink cabinet. With a devilish smirk, he cracked his knuckles and with exaggerated wiggly fingers slowly reached to open the drawer. His dirty hunch was rewarded as the drawer revealed its treasure; a well-used tube of lube, a pink, knobbly dildo, some small vanilla candles... and a taser!?

"What the fuck!" A voice interrupted him. It was Kaito stomping over to him, having followed him when he snuck away. "I knew you couldn't be left unsupervised! Get the hell out!"

The astronaut was towering over him trying to intimidate—something Kaito really should have known wouldn't work on Kokichi. "Nee-heehee, but don't you wanna know what's in Shuichi's sex drawer?"

Kaito growled. "What's in a man's sex drawer is his own private business!"

"SEX DRAWER!?" Miu popped her head around the corner of the room. "Lemme see what kinda sick perv Pooichi is!"

Kokichi burst out into uncontrollable cackles.

"You lil' shit," Kaito grumbled and manhandled Kokichi out of the bathroom, then slammed the door shut when Miu tried to waltz in.

"Um, guys?"

All three jumped at the calm voice. Shuichi was standing right in front of them with the rest of the group watching the scene unfold from further away. He was analysing them with his infamously suspicious eyes—the same look he had when one could practically hear the cogs turning in his mind.

"What's the taser for!?" Kokichi blurted, his eyes shining with mischief.

"Ah!" Kiibo could be heard spluttering in the background.

Without a word, Shuichi reached into his back pocket, removed the booklet and tore one 'Buy my Silence' slip from it, handing it to Kokichi. The Ultimate Leader motioned to his mouth as if zipping it shut and nonchalantly wandered back over to the group. Nothing more would be said about this. Kaito just shrugged and grabbed Miu by the upper arm to drag her away as she were trying to peer through the crack in the door. She made a whimpering noise causing Kaito to drop her arm with a look of disgust, but she recovered quickly enough.

"Alright, virgins, since I'm up—keeping ya'll up!—here's my awesome gift to you!"

With a sense of caution and regret, Shuichi unwrapped the present from Miu. It was a rectangular box wrapped in pink love-heart polka dot paper, and Miu was leering at him and grinning perversely the entire process. Carefully he unwrapped one end and discreetly peeked into the box, making sure no one else could see.

"You can keep it in your sex drawer," Miu said in an unmistakeably breathy manner.

"YES, THANK YOU, MIU," Shuichi coughed loudly and placed the box behind his own body so that no one else could get at it. "What's next!?"

Amid the light snickering, Gonta was the next one to speak up. "Gonta would like to give gift now."

With a great big smile the entomologist passed over a small, tube-shaped present. It barely weighed anything and Shuichi was honestly curious about what it could be. The party was beginning to wind down now that most of the group had given their gifts and Kokichi was getting obviously restless, so he quickly opened it.

"Argh!" He immediately dropped the thing with disgust.

"ANTS!" Kaede yelped.

The whole group screamed and shuffled away from Shuichi. It was a test-tube stuffed with moist cotton wool from which numerous ants where drinking and tending their brood. Gonta happily shuffled over to Shuichi and picked up the test tube for him, shoving it in his face.

"Gonta remember Shuichi say he want calming hobby and Gonta think nothing more calming than watching ants!"

"D-did I say that?" Shuichi asked in a slightly higher pitched voice than normal, torn between staring at the ants or looking away. He turned to Kiibo for support but he had also moved away.

"EEK! They're on me! I can feel them on me!" Tenko panicked. "Himiko! I'll get the ants off you too!"

"Huuuh?" Gonta sounded confused and became panicked in response. "But ants still in tube!"

"I could vanish the ants if my MP weren't so low..." Himiko said, enduring Tenko slapping and brushing her body trying to remove imaginary ants. "But I was up late with Angie last night."

"No! Don't hurt ants!!" Gonta shouted, beginning to get a bit too worked-up.

Tenko paused in her aggressive grooming. "You were with Angie?"

"Nyeh, we had a sleepover."

"Nyahaha! A girls night in," Angie seconded.

"Oh..." That seemed to knock the wind right out of Tenko's sails. She sat back in her place—the only person to move near Shuichi again—and cast Angie a suspicious glance.

"Himiko not hurt ants!?" Gonta asked, still looking rather dangerous.

But that didn't seem to affect the so-called mage. "They're safe… for now," she assured him, which seemed to placate Gonta well enough.

Well enough that he turned his attention back to the birthday boy. He showed Shuichi the tube of ants again; it looked like there was a decent amount crawling around inside. Most of them where huddled in a big ant scrum. Gonta pointed to that part in particular.

"Queen ant protected by workers. Without queen entire colony would die, so Shuichi must be careful! Only one queen so colony stay small."

"What do you call small?" Shuichi asked warily. He noticed Kiibo had returned to his side by this point, though he still looked uncomfortable, as well as some others retaking their original places in the semi-circle.

"This camponotus japonicus, so could reach ten-thousand or more!" Gonta gesticulated widely.

"Ehh!? That is not—!" He found he couldn't articulate himself properly anymore, he was so horrified.

"Yikes!"

"Eek!"

Some of their classmates cringed at the thought, subconsciously itching themselves. Even Maki seemed somewhat off-kilter now.

"But Gonta help build paludarium for new ant dad Shuichi! If living space small, colony adapt and stay small too." More gently than he had ever been, Gonta placed the test tube in Shuichi's sweaty palms. "Gonta sure it help Shuichi's stress."

"Um, I don't know… this sounds like a lot of work. Maybe I wouldn't make the best 'ant dad'." Shuichi tried to find any excuse possible to not accept the damn ants.  _This_  was more stressful than anything else! Unfortunately for him his best friend decided to throw him under the bus.

"Hey, you can have Kokichi help you," Kaito suggested with a smirk. "He  _loves_  bugs, right?"

"Eh!?" the person in question exclaimed.

"Yes, Gonta remember Kokichi like bugs! Gonta will teach Shuichi and Kokichi about ants!"

The entomologist looked so blissfully happy to share his talent and life interest with his friends. Shuichi seemed to have been beaten by Gonta's pure heart and had accepted his gross fate, but Kokichi had more trouble accepting his.

"Ohhh, fuck you, space man!" Kokichi scowled. "You are so… BORING!"

Kaito laughed uproariously.

"Sorry, Shuichi. It was a necessary sacrifice," he smiled apologetically but the detective only sighed and shook his head in response. Kokichi had a similarly sour expression.

Looking down at the ants with a wrinkled nose, Shuichi clasped the test tube as a defeated air blanketed his slack body. Only a monster would throw Gonta's admittedly misplaced kindness back in his face. "Thank you… Gonta. I'll treasure them."

"You have a magnifying glass in here, yeah?" Kokichi casually asked him, looking around for the item.

Shuichi made a mental note to secure all his drawers ( _especially_  the bathroom drawer) lest he be the incorrect future target of Gonta's—ah— _passionate_  rage. The entomologist himself was overjoyed his present would be so useful that Ryoma gave his ankle an amused pat when he settled back down.

The last person to give their gift was Rantaro. "I think my present will be a little more mundane," the Ultimate Adventurer said with a sympathetic smile. It was entirely likely that Rantaro hated ants almost as much as mosquitoes judging from his experiences travelling.

"Thank you," Shuichi replied with great relief. It was actually two, twin neatly-wrapped presents he accepted from Rantaro. They were oddly bumpy and very heavy, and when he unwrapped them they were actually revealed to be two unpolished, dark wooden bookends shaped like cats.

"Made locally in Peru," Rantaro explained. "Entirely handmade so each one is unique."

Shuichi admired the handiwork put into both statues. The cats were modelled after basic shorthairs and upon closer inspection he could see that both were indeed unique from imperfections in the builds. Certainly not from a factory made production line.

"These are great, thank you," he nodded his appreciation which was received with a genuine smile. Rantaro always had this strange, reliable, calming effect on people.

"Such skill," Angie gasped happily from just observing them. "I feel inspired, how Divine! Himiko, I will create a statue in your likeness."

"Not like that degenerate idol, I hope!" Tenko put in.

"Nyeh."

After this Shuichi turned to Kiibo with eagerness in his eyes. This was perhaps the present he was most anticipating. What would his robot boyfriend get him for their first birthday celebration together? However, Kiibo had barely opened his mouth to speak when they were interrupted.

Kaede clapped her hands again to gain the groups' attention. "And now time for the big attraction!" She indicated for Kirumi to go fetch something from the far side of the room.

"Oh, but—" Kiibo tried to speak up.

The Ultimate Maid wheeled over a small tea table that had previously been placed inconspicuously off to the side into the centre of the room for everyone to see. Only Kirumi, Kaede, Kaito and Kiibo had seen what was under the tall plastic cover as the group all gathered around. Kaito positioned Shuichi in front of the table and took the handle to reveal it to the whole group.

"Tah-daaaah!"

It was a gloriously tall cake, multiple layers, multiple stories—so much chocolate! All decorated with lovely icing patterns and yet more chocolate flakes. The group gasped with delight at the sight.

"Since you can't eat any you're lighting the candles, remember, Kiibo?" Kaede held out a lighter when Kiibo didn't move.

Kiibo looked at it for a moment before his eyes moved over to Shuichi, then to the group all gathered around the impressive cake. Multiple people, most notably Kaito, Tenko and Kokichi, looked desperate to dive in and take their piece.

He looked to Shuichi one more time. "Yes, of course," and took the lighter.

"Hurry up, Kiiboy! I'm literally dying of chocolate withdrawals right now!" Kokichi chanted, tapping his plastic knife against his paper plate.

Kiibo spared Kokichi a glare before lighting all the candles. They were arranged in one big swirl on the top layer with the larger, centre candle being one of those prank candles that relit itself, but Shuichi didn't know that yet.

Kokichi pushed to the front next to Shuichi and joined him in blowing hard on the last trick candle, each taking turns whenever it relit. Eventually their teamwork defeated the candle. "There done! Cake time!" He held out his plate expectantly to Kirumi.

Who just smiled patiently and cut him the first slice despite it being the birthday boy who would normally get first dibs. Shuichi shared a helpless glance with Kiibo before accepting his cake.

Once the birthday cake had been shared around the party continued. They played loud music which Kaito convinced Kaede was okay seeing as literally everyone in their dorm building was attending the party anyway. Cliques formed naturally as people broke off from the main group to talk. Kokichi coerced certain people into a game of  _Truth or Dare,_  the ramifications of which Shuichi guessed would stretch into tomorrow. Rantaro revealed his inner geek when he produced a Karaoke game that Kiibo was banned from participating in, and Tsumugi and Tenko insisted they had become drunk on what was actually only fruit juice, after which things began to wind down.

Ryoma and Maki, the asocial birdies that they were, announced their intentions to leave first, which set off a chain reaction prompting the others to leave as well.

Kirumi packaged up cake for everyone to take back to their own rooms and Shuichi could keep the remaining—which was still quite a lot! If he ate all of it he would make himself quite sick. The Ultimate Maid reiterated to Shuichi that she would return the next day to clean his room then bid him and Kiibo a good night.

After the last person left, Shuichi flopped down on a chair with a sigh. Kiibo came over and crouched down at his feet, putting his hands on Shuichi's knees and his head in his lap. Shuichi instinctively began running his fingers through white hair. He just needed to take a calming moment—a short minute to gather his thoughts and breathe evenly. In the silence of the room and their comfortable companionship he continued to stroke his boyfriend's hair. He could just about feel the very minor, very light constant vibration of Kiibo's working body, always present like a human heartbeat. It was something he could feel only when he relaxed fully and let his mind wander; his eyelids began to droop.

"Can I give you my present now?" Kiibo asked into the silence of the room, sounding a bit put-out.

Shuichi chuckled. "Yes, please."

Kiibo jumped to his feet and moved over to the side of the room he had been hanging around before the start of the party. Shuichi felt cold with his absence but before he could get up Kiibo returned to crouch down in front of him again. With his head angled down, Kiibo held out a box to Shuichi.

"Please accept these!" he said overly-formally.

It was a box of obviously home-made chocolates; six in all, each with its own unique decoration. The chocolates themselves looked perfect, though the decoration was a bit sloppy. He looked down at Kiibo who was watching him with a nervous energy. He took one from the middle, top row and popped the entire thing into his mouth. It was dark chocolate praline with a white chocolate swirl for contrast. And it was delicious!

He closed his eyes and hummed appreciatively and Kiibo positively beamed.

"They weren't quite ready at the start of the party, so in this instance I'm actually quite grateful everyone forgot about me. It gave them time to set," Kiibo explained, then hugged Shuichi around the waist. "Happy birthday!"

Shuichi gladly returned the embrace, rather he tried his best to from his position.

Kiibo had made them with Kirumi's help when she were adding the final touches to the birthday cake and when Kaede and Kaito where decorating Shuichi's room. There had been multiple failures leading up to the rushed final product not quite being ready for the start of the party. Thankfully Kirumi had, had the presence to throw Teruteru out of his own lab so they could bake in peace and nobody else would witness Kiibo's failures.

He was just about to thank Kiibo for the lovely, personal present when another box was thrust into his face, this one much larger and heavier. Again Kiibo had his head down when offering it, but when Shuichi accepted the gift he looked up with excitement.

"This one was quite a surprise for myself too," he said.

Which peaked Shuichi's curiosity. Over time he had grown used to Kiibo watching him do pretty much everything, so though he felt awkward opening gifts in front of his other friends, he felt perfectly comfortable doing anything with Kiibo.

"Oh!" It was the limited addition, hardback, boxset collection of the  _Mysteries of Moor Manor_  series. There was a picture of the Author he instantly recognised on the back; Jacqueline Boucher, a rotund, loudmouth French woman. Shuichi admired her no-nonsense attitude that shone through in her writing. "It's—" Shuichi began before he was cut off.

"No, you did it wrong!" To Kiibo's dismay, Shuichi had unwrapped the present back-to-front. Kiibo flipped the boxset over for Shuichi to see the front.

"Oh!" He gasped again, louder this time. There on the front cover of the box, is a note in fancy writing, French, addressing him  _personally—_ Shuichi Saihara. He's speechless. It took him quite a while to recover.

"This is why you were working in that junk shop?" he eventually deduced. This was not a cheap present.

"It's not a junk shop," Kiibo pouted. "But yes, you are correct."

Like many students at Hope's Peak, Kiibo had taken on a part time job to earn some personal spending money. Not that he needed the money considering Professor Idabashi would send over anything he wanted, but mostly as an attempt to fit in with his classmates better, and humans in general. Shuichi himself worked in a flower shop, Kaede at a café, Tsumugi at a  _maid_  café, Kaito as a community volunteer, etcetera.

Kiibo worked at a second-hand junk shop. The kind of run-down, back alley place an eccentric like Jacqueline Boucher would visit in a foreign country

"I recognised her when she came into the shop!" Kiibo proudly explained and Shuichi almost thought that Kiibo was more excited about the present than he himself was, which would be pretty difficult to be fair; he loved it. The robot put his hands on his hips looking very pleased with himself. "I don't think she expected to be recognised in Japan! And I had already purchased the boxset that morning so I kindly asker her to sign it!"

Shuichi could only imagine the situation with Kiibo's non-existent French linguistic skills and mediocre English. He actually wasn't certain Boucher spoke Japanese either. What he wouldn't have given to have been a fly on the wall for that exchange. He could just imagine them both fumbling with broken English, trying to understand eachother. The thought was so adorable he could barely restrain himself from interrupting and hugging Kiibo.

"From what I could gather I believe she intends to write the next story set in Japan." Kiibo continued. "I can't read what she wrote here, however—oh! I hope that is your name! It is, isn't it?" he asked worriedly.

Shuichi laughed. "Yes, it's amazing! Maybe Boucher will write a robot in the next book."

"You think so?" Kiibo sounded amazed. Like he might actually read the series if she did that. It would be nice to see Kiibo read something with some substance, not just trashy manga.

"Mn. I love it, thank you, Kiibo."

The books dropped into his lap when he couldn't contain himself anymore; he took Kiibo's face in both hands and leaned down to kiss him. Kiibo's surprised squeak was swallowed when their lips met but he eagerly returned the kiss. Shuichi felt overwhelmingly happy. What a perfect day it had been!

When they separated Kiibo paused randomly, staring off into nothing. At first Shuichi thought he might have crashed or frozen. That had happened once before after they'd kissed.

Instead a familiar awkward air surrounded them. It was the kind of feeling that Shuichi was certain they had moved on from a long time ago, but it had suddenly returned. Why? They were just enjoying each others company in the privacy of his own room—which he had previously correctly assumed was their favourite pastime—so why did Kiibo suddenly look nervous? Especially after such a fun party and wonderful presents.

"You still have confetti in your hair," Kiibo said. "It's pretty."

"Uh, r-really?" Dammit, now he was nervous too! Why? He tilted his head down so Kiibo could remove the glitter that sparkled in his jet black hair and gather it up in his free hand.

"I was thinking about our conversation before…" Kiibo began, not taking his eyes off the job.

Conversation? What conversation would they have had that would embarrass Kiibo like this? Like he used to act when they first started dating.

Oh!

Oh.

That, yes. Suddenly he understood the awkward situation fully. He could feel his heart beating in his ears, he could almost feel it behind his eyes too, like a pressure had built up and his head might just pop right off—hyper aware that Kiibo was practically on his lap.

Now Kiibo had removed all the glitter and was staring at it in his hands. For his part, Shuichi just watched the top of Kiibo's head waiting for where this would go. Hopefully it would go where he thought it was going. He coughed.

"And, um, since it is your birthday I thought perhaps..." Kiibo brought his hands up to fiddle with his fingers. His face was turning a cute shade of pink. "You… me….."

He said something so quietly that Shuichi could barely hear, though he had a pretty good idea what it was about. It would be proper to ask for clarification however. "What was that?" he asked gently.

Which seemed to frustrate his boyfriend. "I said!" Kiibo shouted, "that you can have me at max!"

This outburst startled them both. Shuichi leaned back and Kiibo looked mortified. The blast shield shot up with the same speed as his hands went up to cover his face for double protection, and it seemed as if he were moments away from laying on the floor in a ball of humiliation. Though it shouldn't have been shocking; Kiibo usually got belligerent when embarrassed. So Shuichi supposed it would have to be him to defuse the situation.

He leaned forward again and gathered Kiibo into a reassuring hug who immediately returned it. "That's the most exciting present I'll ever get," he said, patting the robots head.

"Really..." Kiibo muttered into his chest, not sounding entirely convinced. After a long moment of enjoying the embrace, he backed out of it having come to a decision. "Are you tired?"

"No!" Shuichi replied a little too quickly for his pride to handle.

Kiibo took his hand and led him over to the bed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> BONUS:  
> "How come you are allowed a pet in the dorms and i'm not?"  
> "Ants aren't really a pet..."  
> "Correct, they are exactly twenty-one pets."  
> "Sometimes I regret Miu upgrading your eyesight."
> 
> I would've written all of the class giving Shuichi presents but I honestly just ran out of gift ideas. So just imagine what great things the other characters gave him while Kokichi was snooping in the bathroom.
> 
> The third part to the story is already completed but the second part is giving me trouble. So i don't know when the next update will be LOL


End file.
